Your first Verb-Noun command
Every PowerShell command is named Verb-Noun. The verb says what you are doing, the noun says what you are doing it to. Get-Process, Stop-Service, New-Item, Remove-Item. Once you know the pattern you can often guess a command name correctly on the first try, which is the point.
Documentation: Microsoft Learn
Overview
The verbs are not arbitrary. PowerShell defines an approved list, grouped by meaning: Get retrieves, Set modifies, New creates, Remove deletes, Start and Stop control execution, Test checks a condition and returns true or false. Get-Verb prints the whole list. Because the list is enforced by convention across every well-written module, Get conventionally retrieves information and Remove deletes it. A verb is not a safety guarantee: inspect unfamiliar commands, their source and their effects before running them.
Nouns are singular by convention, even when the command returns many things. Get-Process, not Get-Processes.
The pipe, again
You met the pipe (|) in the version lesson: it feeds the objects from the command on its left into the command on its right — read it as "then". Here it does the same job: Get-Command -Verb Get produces a list of command objects, then Select-Object -First 10 Name keeps the first ten and shows only their Name property. The commands never turn into text in between — that is why no parsing is needed.
What happens
Get-Command -Verb Get asks for every command whose verb is Get, and the pipeline hands that list to Select-Object, which keeps the first ten and shows only the Name property. The output is a sample of the read-only commands available to you. Swap Get for Set or Remove to see the commands that change things.
Worth remembering
- Verb-Noun is a rule, not a style preference.
- Get-Verb lists every approved verb.
- Get conventionally retrieves information. Naming alone cannot guarantee that a command is read-only; inspect unfamiliar implementations.
- Nouns are singular even when output is plural.
Primary documentation
Try it
Browser simulation · fictional data; no changes to your computer.
Follow the objects
Run the command to inspect each stage.
Lists ten commands that use the Get verb, so you can see the naming pattern in real names. Sample output — the exact names and order depend on your installation.
Show reference output
Sample output · fictional data, shaped like the real thing
Name ------------- Get-Service Get-Process Get-ADUser Get-AzVM Get-ChildItem
Practise this
Run your first service command
Display the Spooler service and its complete properties.
The sandbox is visible now. Sign in with Google only when you run or check a task; commands and temporary files are discarded when you leave.
Run a command to inspect its result.